


Scavenger

by idrilhadhafang



Series: TFA Tidbits [4]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Absent Parents, Adoptive Parents - Freeform, Angst with a Happy Ending, Baby Rey, Bad Parenting, Badass Rey, Gen, Mechanic Rey, POV Rey (Star Wars), Parent Rey, Parenthood, Pilot Rey, Rey Needs A Hug, Rey Skywalker, Sad with a Happy Ending, Scavenger Rey (Star Wars), Young Rey, adoptive families, de-sueifying Rey a bit, finn/Rey if you squint, good parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 04:36:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12951420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Ten facts about Rey on Jakku.





	Scavenger

**Author's Note:**

> nspired by the fact that a lot of people call Rey a Sue. Make of that what you will, of course, but I figured I’d write my own fic to explain some of the stuff that kind of strained my suspension of disbelief. 
> 
> Also, Jaina is her real name in my verse. Let’s say that I wanted a callback to the Legendsverse. 
> 
> And this strayed a bit from the prompt. I just hope it still fits!

  
1\. Jaina’s only five when she’s left on Jakku. Her earliest memory of that is being left there, while her mother (while Mama) tries to explain, tries to help her understand (at least as much as a five year old can understand).

“Jaya, whatever happens, you are so loved. Mama loves you, baby, Daddy loves you, Benny loves you. We all love you. Aaron and Zara are going to keep you safe, sweetheart. And I promise you that I’ll come back.”

Jaina can’t wrap her head around it, of course. She’s only five; she doesn’t understand even a bit of it. All she knows is that Mama’s leaving, and she might not be coming back.

But she’s got to, hasn’t she?

Even as her mother’s ship flies back up into the sky, she protests. Begs for her mother to come back, even as the Crolute orders her to be quiet.

“I want my mommy and daddy — ’’

“They’re not coming back, girl,” says the Crolute. “They’ve left you behind.”

2\. She doesn’t live with the Crolute, and Jaina’s grateful. She lives instead with Aaron and Zara, who she likes. They give her the alias of Rey, after their own daughter they lost long ago. Jaina doesn’t know why, but she knows she has to accept the name. For her safety.

(Over time, Jaina Skywalker fades and Rey Lien becomes the truth. She forgets about Ben, forgets about Luke, her father, and Alora her mother, and it’s easy to do when the memories aren’t too imprinted into your databank in the first place)

  
3\. Jakku is a desolate, terrible place, but Aaron and Zara find ways to make it tolerable, even fun. It’s one day that they take Rey out to fly a ship. They don’t leave the planet of Jakku, of course, but they speed through the sky, do loops in the air, much to Rey’s delight. There’s something about being in the skies of Jakku that’s truly invigorating — where it seems that all their problems evaporate in the vast blue sky.

(Years after Aaron and Zara die of an illness, Rey finds that flying the ship honors her adoptive parents’ memories. Sometimes she fancies herself flying, and hearing their voices, telling her what to do, how to do this, how to do that. Sometimes she uses her pilot’s skills to get more artifacts for Plutt, which he’s pleased by. It’s dirty work, but it keeps portions on the table)

4\. Aaron and Zara also teach her a lot of things. Different languages (Zara says that in learning languages, you learn to connect with others on the most primal of levels), how to fight (“It’s hard, Rey, but there are people out here that want to hurt you,” Zara says. “They won’t leave you alone just because you’re a child. I wish they did, but they don’t.”), how to repair things around the farm that keep breaking. And they teach her more about ships as well. They teach her about ships, and what puts too much stress on the hyperdrive, and Aaron actually says to them both that Unkar’s an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing half the time, much to Zara and Rey’s amusement.

5\. It’s losing Zara and Aaron when she’s thirteen that Rey realizes that she’s alone, good as alone with only the lessons that they taught her for company. She doesn’t have anyone to keep her company on this world; she remembers dreams about a dark-haired boy who’s unfailingly kind to her, but they’re not real. Little girls have to leave their imaginary friends behind, she knows that now, because the real world, the real galaxy, isn’t so wonderful. Especially not Jakku.

Rey buries then both that night, small graves near the Lien homestead, and weeps for them. No matter what happens, she will never, ever forget them, and all they’ve done for her.

6\. Jakku is isolated from the rest of the galaxy, but Rey still hears about the First Order and what they do. Reports from travelers that come in here and here, talking about what the First Order’s done, and Rey knows that if she could, she would do anything to fight against the First Order.

It’s one of her goals, besides reuniting with her family. She has daydreams, occasionally, or what it would be like to reunite with her family. A ship, the same ship she sees in her dreams, touching down on the planet of Jakku, and one of her family coming out. Would it be the dark-haired boy, the brown-haired woman, anyone? She doesn’t know. But she can picture sharing stories about her living on Jakku, the hunger and the finds she found, things of that nature. She can picture talking about it, and how they’ll react — shock, anger towards Plutt, wonder. Something in Rey tells her that her family left her behind a long time ago, but she refuses to believe it. They’ll come back. They can’t have left her behind. They can’t have.

And it’s that carefully structured denial that keeps Rey sane throughout her life on Jakku.

(When Maz tells her that whoever she’s waiting for on Jakku is never coming back, it’s like her denial shatters into tiny pieces, because she’s known it, she’s known it all along)

7\. The heat of Jakku becomes as much of a part of Rey’s life as the hunger and the loneliness. She still presses on, defending herself from those who try and hurt her, finding new ways to explore crevices and holes that contain new artifacts for Plutt. It’s not easy, but she presses on nonetheless, determined to survive however she can.

8\. Finn and BB-8 really are her first friends upon leaving Jakku. Back on Jakku, she didn’t really have friends. Aaron and Zara tried, but Jakku was a lonely planet, everyone trying to survive more than anything else. Having friends is, honestly, new.

9\. Finn doesn’t understand, now that she’s left Jakku, why she has to go back. But her family’s waiting for her. Besides, she’s never left the planet. It’s almost frightening, she has to admit. She’s never been this far away from Jakku before — at all, actually. She has to get back. She just has to, and yet...

Yet when Maz says that whoever Rey’s waiting for on Jakku is never coming back, Rey feels her denial crumble. Because it was there, right there. It was there all along.

10\. It’s after the war that Rey tries to make things better for those on Jakku. Talking about it, lobbying for someone in the Republic to help Jakku, things of that nature. It’s a small gesture, without a doubt, but if she can keep another from growing up in the same environment that she did, then it’s a victory in and of itself.

And in the meantime, she talks to her children about what she went through, though in terms that a little child would understand. She teaches them, because she knows that she’s giving hope to a new generation of heroes, and she will never let them down.

And from there...from there she can forge a brighter future.


End file.
